Finnish Government Criticizes Microsoft for Job Cuts,' Broken Promises'

[binary solo]

CosmicSex said:

binary solo said:
If the Finnish govt gave MS some tax breaks or other concessions in exchange for an undertaking to bring long term employment to the country, possibly as a condition of the purchase of Nokia, then they probably have some justification for being pissed at MS. However if the Nokia deal was a purely private sector matter with no govt concessions or financial sweeteners then too bad. MS has no particular duty to Finland, they have a duty to their shareholders and anyone with whom they have entered into a contractual agreement.

But, leaving them with nothing and putting the burden on the government (hence taxpayers) is why such a deal should be scrutiniezed.  Microsoft has a duty to sharholders and Finland has a duty to its citizens.  Obviously, there are cases where govenrment intervention is necessary.  Corporations are not designed with peoples well being in mind.  That is the job of the government.   It would be like if the govenrment allowed Ford to be purchesed by Russia and then they crashed it, took the patents and left the thousands and thousands of workers to burn.  Hopefully, the government would have the forsight to put the people first from the get go and require full accounting of plans and determine how liability should be handeled. 

Well all that entirely depends on a country's foreign investment laws. And I can actually imagine with how Nokia was failing at the time the Finnish govt saw big ole MS with it's deep pockets as a white knight and possibly let some of the usual guarantees slide. Of course you can't hold a corporation to certain commitments inperpetuity. At best you could get a 10 year undertaking, with a get out clause after 5 years if things are going badly.